A variety of conveyor roller systems have heretofore been designed and utilized. A large variety of known conveyor roller systems comprise a continuous belt or conveyor medium which travels over a series of rollers. The rollers can be simple shafts on which may be mounted various forms of sprockets or drive means for supporting the conveyor medium. Some advanced conveyor systems utilize enclosed and sealed drive rollers with the drive motors contained inside the rollers themselves.
An example of such motorized conveyor roller is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,596 which teaches a motorized conveyor roller mounted in a conveyer frame to support and propel articles from one end of the conveyor path towards the opposite end. The conveyer roller includes a roller tube rotatably mounted in the conveyor frame and drive means contained inside the roller tube for driving the roller tube. The drive means includes a motor, a gear reducer assembly operatively connected to the motor, and a drive member connected to the outward shaft of the speed reducer for engaging and rotating the roller tube.
Furthermore there has been a concern by some to improve the safety features of conveyor rollers and particularly motorized conveyor rollers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,799 illustrates a brake device for a conveyor having two load supporting conveyor rollers rotatable to engage a load thereon to be transported along the conveyor. The load supporting rollers are movably transversely to their axis of rotation by a load passing there over against a resilient bias into engagement with a brake roller adapted to brake rotation of the conveyor rollers.
Moreover U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,184 illustrates a safety shutdown system for luggage conveyor systems.
Furthermore U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,528 teaches a conveyor roller.
There is, however, a need to improve the safety features of motorized conveyor rollers.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved motorized conveyor roller and method thereof.
It is an aspect of this invention to provide a motorized conveyor roller having a rotatable portion and at least one stationary end.